Danish cord weave for Leggera chair by Gio Ponti  

@shoebedoe, This is one for our resident expert seat weaver, @spanky.

Let's see if she still responds to the Bat Signal!

Offhand I don't know how to do it so I can't offer any explanation.  

It may have something to do with going from side to side twice in a row and then front to back three times in a row?  On each side, I mean.  I'd just fool around trying different things until I hit on it, if I didn't have an original on hand to study.  

Look at videos for rush seat weave patterns.  I think there's a lot more variation there than with paper cord.  Could be helpful. 

Nice design! I saw a video a while back in which the cord hooked around nails on the inside of the frame. Is there any way you can see if that's the case for your chairs? If so, it would be pretty straightforward - just go back and forth along the top of the seat, hooking around the nails 2x or 3x.

Second thought, it doesn't look as if the cord is 'turning' along/across. Is it possible that it is running along all the way AND THEN running across all the way? 

I'd love to find out.

On a related note, I did restoration on a pair of Superleggaras a couple of years ago. The original thin cane was still on the chairs, but significantly torn. Upon removing the cane and examining the construction, I came to the conclusion that the cane was not hand woven. It appears to be machine-woven mats, cut larger than the seat. However, instead of the usual press-in cane installation with grooves and reeds, the edges of the cane are unwoven, then hand-wrapped around the seat rails and each one individually tucked in a knot. Presumably the cane is wet, so that it all tightens up after drying. Despite plenty of vintage and modern photos of the Cassina factory and chairs, I have yet to come across a caning action photo. So the above is all educated guessing on my part, rather than confirmed fact. However, you can find a couple of examples online of caners trying to reweave this chair. While there are a few before and during photos, I could never find an "after" photo. My guess is that the weave just doesn't work out and look finished afterwards when attempted by hand.

So, instead of trying to achieve the impossible, I chose an alternate route and decided to go with black vegetable tanned leather and canvas stretched over the rails.